Rachel's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 09 Apr 2025 22:07:06 -0700 60 Rachel's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands]]> 207675122 The gripping true story of how leading Israeli journalist Amir Tibon, along with his wife and their two young children, were rescued from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023 by Tibon’s own father—an incredible tale of survival that also reveals the deep tensions and systemic failures that led to Hamas’s attacks that day.

On the morning ofOctober 7, Amir Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli communityless than a mile from Gaza City. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the family’s reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry as gunfireechoed just outside the door. With his cell phone battery running low, Amir texted his “The girls are behaving really well, but I’m worried they’ll lose patience soon and Hamas will hear us.�

Some 45 miles north, Amir’s parentshad just cut short an early morning swim along the shores of Tel Aviv. Now, they jumped in their Jeep and sped toward Nahal Oz,armed only with a pistol but intent on saving their family at all costs.

InThe Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells this harrowing story in full for the first time. He describes his family's ordeal—and the bravery that ultimately led to their rescue—alongside the histories of the place they call home and the systems of power that have kept them and their neighbors in Gaza in harm’s way for decades.

Woven throughout is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the failed peace process. More than one family's odyssey,The Gates of Gazais the intimate story of a tight-knit community and the broader saga of war, occupation, and hostility between two national movements—a conflict that has not yet extinguished the enduring hope for peace.]]> 352 Amir Tibon 0316580961 Rachel 0 to-read 4.67 2024 The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands
author: Amir Tibon
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> Exile Music: A Novel 49000193 Based on an unexplored slice of World War II history, Exile Music is the captivating story of a young Jewish girl whose family flees refined and urbane Vienna for safe harbor in the mountains of Bolivia

As a young girl growing up in Vienna in the 1930s, Orly has an idyllic childhood filled with music. Her father plays the viola in the Philharmonic, her mother is a well-regarded opera singer, her beloved and charismatic older brother holds the neighborhood in his thrall, and most of her eccentric and wonderful extended family live nearby. Only vaguely aware of Hitler's rise or how her Jewish heritage will define her family's identity, Orly spends her days immersed in play with her best friend and upstairs neighbor, Anneliese. Together they dream up vivid and elaborate worlds, where they can escape the growing tensions around them.

But in 1938, Orly's peaceful life is shattered when the Germans arrive. Her older brother flees Vienna first, and soon Orly, her father, and her mother procure refugee visas for La Paz, a city high up in the Bolivian Andes. Even as the number of Jewish refugees in the small community grows, her family is haunted by the music that can no longer be their livelihood, and by the family and friends they left behind. While Orly and her father find their footing in the mountains, Orly's mother grows even more distant, harboring a secret that could put their family at risk again. Years pass, the war ends, and Orly must decide: Is the love and adventure she has found in La Paz what defines home, or is the pull of her past in Europe--and the piece of her heart she left with Anneliese--too strong to ignore?]]> 429 Jennifer Steil 052556182X Rachel 2
Really? Was it really necessary for Orly to have an affair and the details?

It felt like when movies throw in some random scene or "f" bomb to get a particular rating.

Totally unnecessary. Didn't add to the story at all! For me, it ruined what had been up to that point, had been a story of strength and character.]]> 4.36 2020 Exile Music: A Novel
author: Jennifer Steil
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:
I liked the book until the end

Really? Was it really necessary for Orly to have an affair and the details?

It felt like when movies throw in some random scene or "f" bomb to get a particular rating.

Totally unnecessary. Didn't add to the story at all! For me, it ruined what had been up to that point, had been a story of strength and character.
]]> <![CDATA[My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)]]> 61070579
September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain.

Diplomats, refugees, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, at one fifth of a square mile the world’s smallest state, a neutral, independent country within Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly danger as they seek to help those seeking refuge.

Book 1 in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy, My Father’s House is a powerful, heartbreaking literary thriller based on the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who risked his life to smuggle thousands of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy under the nose of his Nazi nemesis. A deadly high-stakes battle of wits ensues in this astonishing, unforgettable story of love, faith and sacrifice, exploring what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances.]]> 440 Joseph O'Connor 1609458362 Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.22 2023 My Father's House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy, #1)
author: Joseph O'Connor
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> To The Lighthouse 216947440 Virginia Woolf Rachel 0 currently-reading 3.51 To The Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.51
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women]]> 34394482 The incredible true story of the women who fought America's Undark danger

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive - until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.

Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives...]]> 476 Kate Moore 1492649368 Rachel 4 4.28 2016 The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
author: Kate Moore
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:
Soooo sad. Amazing stories of courage and fortitude and amazing stories of corruption.
]]> <![CDATA[At the Back of the North Wind (Radio Theatre)]]> 269712 2 Paul McCusker 1589972503 Rachel 0 4.26 1871 At the Back of the North Wind (Radio Theatre)
author: Paul McCusker
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1871
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
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]]> Daughter of Fire 196218541 For a young woman coming of age in sixteenth-century Guatemala, safeguarding her people’s legacy is a dangerous pursuit in a mystical, empowering, and richly imagined historical novel.

Catalina Cerrato is raised by her widowed father, Don Alonso, in 1551 Guatemala, scarcely thirty years since the Spanish invasion. A ruling member of the oppressive Spanish hierarchy, Don Alonso holds sway over the newly relegated lower class of Indigenous communities. Fiercely independent, Catalina struggles to honor her father and her late mother, a Maya noblewoman to whom Catalina made a vow that only she can preserve the lost sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the treasured and now forbidden history of the K’iche people.

Urged on by her mother’s spirit voice, and possessing the gift of committing the invaluable stories to memory, Catalina embarks on a secret and transcendent quest to rewrite them. Through ancient pyramids, Spanish haciendas, and caves of masked devils, she finds an ally in the captivating Juan de Rojas, a lord whose rule was compromised by the invasion. But as their love and trust unfolds, and Don Alonso’s tyranny escalates, Catalina must confront her conflicted blood heritage—and its secrets—once and for all if she’s to follow her dangerous quest to its historic end.]]> 280 Sofia Robleda 166251798X Rachel 0 to-read 3.91 2024 Daughter of Fire
author: Sofia Robleda
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Keeper of Happy Endings 57429914 An enchanting novel about fate, second chances, and hope, lost and found, by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Last of the Moon Girls.

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

Decades later, while coping with her own tragic loss, aspiring gallery owner Rory Grant leases Soline’s old property and discovers a box containing letters and a vintage wedding dress, never worn. When Rory returns the mementos, an unlikely friendship develops, and eerie parallels in Rory’s and Soline’s lives begin to surface. It’s clear that they were destined to meet—and that Rory may hold the key to righting a forty-year wrong and opening the door to shared healing and, perhaps, a little magic.]]> 415 Barbara Davis 1542021480 Rachel 0 4.47 2021 The Keeper of Happy Endings
author: Barbara Davis
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Estuary (Oceans of Time Book 1)]]> 140297542 Can a family bond stand the test of time?

Lady Tiliani Forelli is the epitome of the She-Wolves who raised her, an adept archer with a mind of her own. It is long past time for her to wed, but she deems each young lord who comes to bid for her hand lacking. With battles upon their border, and rumors of war growing louder on every front, Lady Forelli’s decision could secure her kingdom’s peace . . . or bring about its destruction.

Centuries later, history major Luciana Betarrini takes a summer job alongside her twin, Domenico, as a period actor at Castello Forelli in Italy. As incoming college seniors, this might be their last chance to spend meaningful time together, so she’s soaking up every minute. But when Nico's theory that their lost Betarrini relatives have traveled through time becomes potentially real—and they might be able to follow—Luci fears they’ll be forever divided.

In this new trilogy, author Lisa T. Bergren is extending the world originally created in her bestselling River of Time series.]]> 354 Lisa Tawn Bergren Rachel 0 4.80 2023 Estuary (Oceans of Time Book 1)
author: Lisa Tawn Bergren
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/21
date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> When We Had Wings 61160094 From three bestselling authors comes an interwoven tale of a trio of World War II nurses in the Pacific who wage their own battle for freedom and survival.

The Philippines, 1941. When US Navy nurse Eleanor Lindstrom, US Army nurse Penny Franklin, and Filipina nurse Lita Capel forge a friendship at the Army Navy Club in Manila, they believe they’re living a paradise assignment. All three are seeking a way to escape their pasts, but soon the beauty and promise of their surroundings give way to the heavy mantle of war.

Caught in the crosshairs of a fight between the US military and the Japanese Imperial Army for control of the Philippine islands, the nurses are forced to serve under combat conditions and, ultimately, endure captivity as the first female prisoners of the Second World War. As their resiliency is tested in the face of squalid living arrangements, food shortages, and the enemy’s blatant disregard for the articles of the Geneva Convention, they strive to keep their hope—and their fellow inmates—alive, though not without great cost.

In this sweeping story based on the true experiences of nurses dubbed “the Angels of Bataan,� three women shift in and out of each other’s lives through the darkest days of the war, buoyed by their unwavering friendship and distant dreams of liberation.]]> 416 Ariel Lawhon 0785253246 Rachel 0 4.40 2022 When We Had Wings
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Saturdays (The Melendy Family, #1)]]> 5019 children take turns to spend their pooled allowances. Actor Mona 13 recites poetry and Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. Engineer Rush 12, mischievous, builds Meccano bridges. Miranda "Randy" 10 dances and paints pictures. Oliver, 6, calm and thoughtful, is a train engineer. Father writes. Housekeeper Cuffy mothers.]]> 177 Elizabeth Enright 0805070605 Rachel 0 to-read 4.17 1941 The Saturdays (The Melendy Family, #1)
author: Elizabeth Enright
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland #1)]]> 32970179 When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.

]]> 505 Anthony Horowitz 0062645242 Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.02 2016 Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland #1)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rock of Our Redeemer: Facing the Future with Faith, Hope, and Power]]> 216625585 116 David A. Bednar 1649333471 Rachel 5 4.77 The Rock of Our Redeemer: Facing the Future with Faith, Hope, and Power
author: David A. Bednar
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.77
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
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]]> The Echo of Old Books 62060274
With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers� tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story—and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.]]> 431 Barbara Davis 1542038154 Rachel 0 4.27 2023 The Echo of Old Books
author: Barbara Davis
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
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]]> When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Rachel 4 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves:
review:
There is the "f" bomb, which I don't like in this book. That being said, for those going into or are already in palliative care, this is a beautiful book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Tawny Man Trilogy 3-Book Bundle: Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's Fate]]> 22435515
FOOL’S ERRAND
GOLDEN FOOL
FOOL’S FATE

For fifteen years Fitz has lived in self-imposed exile, assumed to be dead by almost all who once cared about him. But now, into his isolated life, visitors begin to Fitz’s mentor from his assassin days; a hedge-witch who foresees the return of a long-lost love; and the Fool, the former White Prophet, who beckons Fitz to fulfill his destiny.

Then comes the summons he cannot ignore. Prince Dutiful, the young heir to the Farseer throne, has vanished. Fitz, possessed of magical skills both royal and profane, is the only one who can retrieve him in time for his betrothal ceremony, thus sparing the Six Duchies profound political embarrassment . . . or worse. But even Fitz does not suspect the web of treachery that awaits him—or how his loyalties will be tested to the breaking point.

Praise for Robin Hobb and the Tawny Man Trilogy

“Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb’s books are diamonds in a sea of zircons.�—George R. R. Martin

“[Robin] Hobb has created a world brimming with detail and complexity [and] once again proves herself a full master of the epic fantasy.��Tulsa World, on Fool’s Errand

“Splendid . . . Despite some truly wrenching twists, there is a welcome sense of new beginnings.��Locus, on Fool’s Errand

“[Robin Hobb] ranks near the top of the high fantasy field. . . . [She] juggles all the balls with aplomb, besides providing spot-on characterizations.��Publishers Weekly, on Golden Fool

“Solid storytelling with warmth and heart.��The Kansas City Star, on Golden Fool

“[Robin] Hobb’s rich, vibrant and unique world [is] filled with sentient ships, magical beasts, and fascinating characters. . . . Highly recommended.��Library Journal, on Fool’s Fate

“Rich, enchanting fantasy from one of today’s best practitioners . . . reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin’s The Other Wind [and] Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series.��BookPage, on Fool’s Fate]]> 2775 Robin Hobb 080418061X Rachel 3 4.66 2013 The Tawny Man Trilogy 3-Book Bundle: Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's Fate
author: Robin Hobb
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves:
review:
Soooo sloooowwww!! Painfully slow.
]]> The Dictionary of Lost Words 49354511 Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium�, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid� flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.]]> 384 Pip Williams 1925972593 Rachel 0 to-read 3.97 2020 The Dictionary of Lost Words
author: Pip Williams
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Peter and the Amulet 219357829 Okay, so it’s 1953 in St. Louis and I’ve just come here from Willow, Idaho (I know…you never heard of it) and I’m about as in with the other kids here at Dewey School as a pin in a balloon factory. Nobody likes me. I mean except my mom and dad and my little sister, Ronette (I know…a weird name). But who would like a hick from Idaho with stick-out ears and is the shortest kid in his 7th grade class and who doesn’t think people should be down on Negroes and Jews and short kids from Idaho with stick out ears and I’m not exactly the Einstein of 7th graders in the world either, but� Well, you get the picture.

So, what does Nava Silbertasch, a Jewish girl in my class who decides to like me, and Joshua Josephson, a really cool Negro who gives me a mysterious amulet that he says will change my life, have to do with my story? Well, you’ll have to read Peter and the Amulet to find out.

You’ll be surprised!

Peter and the Amulet is a unique and significant addition to children’s literature. It is a not often addressed historical look at a post-World War II segregated city in the1950s from the standpoint of a young boy. But it is also a meaningful and impacting encounter with finding oneself through overpowering experiences, including feelings of inferiority, bullying, racism, and even death.

What reviewers have
“So many layers to this story. Readers of all ages will enjoy and be edified by its simple but profound message of love, friendship, determination, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion.�
"The writing is outstanding!"
"A deeply moving experience for me."
"I laughed. I cried. I was inspired."]]> 196 Steve Dunn Hanson Rachel 0 to-read 4.80 Peter and the Amulet
author: Steve Dunn Hanson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.80
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End]]> 20696006 In Being Mortal, author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.]]> 282 Atul Gawande 0805095152 Rachel 5 4.47 2014 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
author: Atul Gawande
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)]]> 776407 180 A.A. Milne 0525444440 Rachel 5 4.37 1928 The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)
author: A.A. Milne
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1928
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> Tress of the Emerald Sea 60531406 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson expands his Cosmere universe shared by The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn with a new standalone novel for everyone who loved The Princess Bride.

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?]]> 443 Brandon Sanderson Rachel 0 4.35 2023 Tress of the Emerald Sea
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite]]> 20685373
Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has accepted a job teaching English. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them to write, all under the watchful eye of the regime.

Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues - evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. She is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. To them, everything in North Korea is the best, the tallest, the most delicious, the envy of all nations. Still, she cannot help but love them - their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished.

As the weeks pass, she begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own - at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. The students in turn offer Suki tantalizing glimpses into their lives, from their thoughts on how to impress girls to their disappointment that soccer games are only televised when the North Korean team wins. Then Kim Jong-il dies, leaving the students devastated, and leading Suki to question whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged.

Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves."]]> 291 Suki Kim 0307720659 Rachel 4 3.92 2014 Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
author: Suki Kim
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:
Eye opening. And oh so very sad. Grateful for the country I live in.
]]> The Brothers Karamazov 4934
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.]]> 796 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0374528373 Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.36 1880 The Brothers Karamazov
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1880
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> To the Lighthouse 59716
As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.]]> 209 Virginia Woolf Rachel 0 to-read 3.81 1927 To the Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11)]]> 203164414
Flavia de Luce, along with her pestilent younger cousin, investigates the murder of a former public hangman and uncovers secrets that bring the greatest shock of her life.



Poisonous mushrooms, pestilent cousins—and a most perplexing murder...

There's a new arrival at Buckshaw—Flavia de Luce's obnoxious cousin Undine. Flavia reluctantly takes on the mentorship of her fellow orphan, who in her best moments shows some potential for trespassing and trickery.

When Major Greyleigh, a former hangman, is found dead from a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family's longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, didn't she pick the mushrooms and serve them to Greyleigh moments before his death?

Flavia knows her beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the odious Undine, she sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet's good name.

But following the case's twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life...]]> 298 Alan Bradley 0593724518 Rachel 5 3.97 2024 What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11)
author: Alan Bradley
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves:
review:
I don't know how Bradley does it, but time and time again, he does! Creating and adding Undine is brilliant and had me laughing outright several times.
]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 59710157 For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 362 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204177 Rachel 3 4.51 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves:
review:
Lovely story. I'd rate it higher if not for the foul language throughout.
]]> The Last Midwife 23848453
But everything changes when a baby is found dead...and the evidence points to Gracy as the murderer.

She didn't commit the crime, but clearing her name isn't so easy when her innocence is not quite as simple, either. She knows things, and that's dangerous. Invited into her neighbors' homes during their most intimate and vulnerable times, she can't help what she sees and hears. A woman sometimes says things in the birthing bed, when life and death seem suspended within the same moment. Gracy has always tucked those revelations away, even the confessions that have cast shadows on her heart.

With her friends taking sides and a trial looming, Gracy must decide whether it's worth risking everything to prove her innocence. And she knows that her years of discretion may simply demand too high a price now...especially since she's been keeping more than a few dark secrets of her own.

With Sandra Dallas's incomparable gift for creating a sense of time and place and characters that capture your heart, The Last Midwife tells the story of family, community, and the secrets that can destroy and unite them.]]> 368 Sandra Dallas 1250074460 Rachel 4 3.87 2015 The Last Midwife
author: Sandra Dallas
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> A Fall of Marigolds 18114142 A beautiful scarf, passed down through the generations, connects two women who learn that the weight of the world is made bearable by the love we give away....

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries …and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers …the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?
]]> 370 Susan Meissner Rachel 0 to-read 4.06 2014 A Fall of Marigolds
author: Susan Meissner
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom]]> 24611623 273 Yeonmi Park 1594206791 Rachel 0 to-read 4.45 2015 In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
author: Yeonmi Park
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wednesday Wars 10263191 In this Newbery Honor–winning novel, Gary D. Schmidt tells thewitty and compelling story of ateenage boy who feels that fate has it in for him, during the school year 1968-69. Seventh grader Holling Hoodhood isn't happy. He is sure his newteacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Holling's domineering father is obsessed with his business image and disregards his family. Throughout the school year, Holling strives toget a handle on the Shakespeare plays Mrs. Baker assigns him to read on his own time, and to figure out the enigmatic Mrs. Baker. As the Vietnam War turns lives upside down, Holling comes to admire and respect both Shakespeare and Mrs. Baker, who have more to offer him than he imagined. And when his family is on the verge of coming apart, he also discovers his loyalty to his sister, and his ability to stand up to his father when it matters most.]]> 298 Gary D. Schmidt Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.34 2007 The Wednesday Wars
author: Gary D. Schmidt
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Okay for Now 11052125
As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny thug� that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.� In Lil, Doug finds the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage. In this stunning novel, Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.]]> 368 Gary D. Schmidt Rachel 5 Fantastic! 4.48 2011 Okay for Now
author: Gary D. Schmidt
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/26
date added: 2024/08/26
shelves:
review:
Fantastic!
]]> Rebecca 217334953 449 Daphne du Maurier 1998488284 Rachel 4 4.29 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Prisoner B-3087 15756277
10 concentration camps.

10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly.

It's something no one could imagine surviving.

But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face.

As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087.

He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again seconds later.

Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will -- and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside?


Based on an astonishing true story.]]> 272 Alan Gratz 054545901X Rachel 0 to-read 4.43 2013 Prisoner B-3087
author: Alan Gratz
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Go as a River 63922274 A sweeping, heart-stopping epic of a young woman's journey to becoming, set against the harsh beauty of mid-century Colorado

On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family's farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a disheveled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives.

So begins the mesmerizing story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength.

Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life forever.

Go as a River is a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettable characters and a breathtaking natural setting, it is a sweeping story of survival and becoming, of the deepest mysteries of love, truth and fate.]]> 320 Shelley Read 1954118236 Rachel 0 to-read 4.20 2023 Go as a River
author: Shelley Read
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works]]> 235869
Written by two prominent nutritionists, Intuitive Eating focuses on nurturing your body rather than starving it, encourages natural weight loss, and helps you find the weight you were meant to be.

Learn:
*How to reject diet mentality forever
*How our three Eating Personalities define our eating difficulties
*How to feel your feelings without using food
*How to honor hunger and feel fullness
*How to follow the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, step-by-step
*How to achieve a new and safe relationship with food and, ultimately, your body

With much more compassionate, thoughtful advice on satisfying, healthy living, this newly revised edition also includes a chapter on how the Intuitive Eating philosophy can be a safe and effective model on the path to recovery from an eating disorder.]]> 284 Evelyn Tribole 0312321236 Rachel 0 4.21 1995 Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works
author: Evelyn Tribole
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Where the Forest Meets the Stars]]> 41818297
After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay—just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.]]> 333 Glendy Vanderah 1503959910 Rachel 2 4.29 2019 Where the Forest Meets the Stars
author: Glendy Vanderah
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:
I'd give this 5 stars if not for the foul language throughout this book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1)]]> 34494 Librarian's Note: For an alternate cover edition of the same ISBN, click here.

"Another world is colliding with this one," said the toad. "All the monsters are coming back."

"Why?" said Tiffany.

"There's no one to stop them."

There was silence for a moment.

Then Tiffany said, "There's me."

Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle - aka the Wee Free Men - a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny. Together they battle through an eerie and ever-shifting landscape, fighting brutal flying fairies, dream-spinning dromes, and grimhounds - black dogs with eyes of fire and teeth of razors - before ultimately confronting the Queen of the Elves, absolute ruler of a world in which reality intertwines with nightmare. And in the final showdown, Tiffany must face her cruel power alone...

In a riveting narrative that is equal parts suspense and humor, Carnegie Medalist Terry Pratchett returns to his internationally popular Discworld with a breathtaking tale certain to leave fans, new and old, enthralled.]]> 375 Terry Pratchett 0060012382 Rachel 0 4.29 2003 The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
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]]> <![CDATA[As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow]]> 58204377
Salama Kassab, 18 ans, avait la vie devant elle, quand la révolution a commencé en Syrie et quand les combats lui ont tout pris : sa famille, son avenir de pharmacienne.
Il ne lui reste plus que Layla, sa belle-sœur enceinte, et sa conviction de pouvoir aider son pays grâce à son travail bénévole à l'hôpital. Mais elle est tiraillée entre l'envie de se rendre utile, et celle de mettre Layla à l'abri. Au moment où elle se résigne finalement à fuir la Syrie, une rencontre avec un jeune militant plein d'espoir va tout remettre en cause.]]> 416 Zoulfa Katouh Rachel 5 4.46 2022 As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
author: Zoulfa Katouh
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
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]]> The Indigo Girl 34412073
The year is 1739. Eliza Lucas is sixteen years old when her father leaves her in charge of their family's three plantations in rural South Carolina and then proceeds to bleed the estates dry in pursuit of his military ambitions. Tensions with the British, and with the Spanish in Florida, just a short way down the coast, are rising, and slaves are starting to become restless. Her mother wants nothing more than for their South Carolina endeavor to fail so they can go back to England. Soon her family is in danger of losing everything.

Upon hearing how much the French pay for indigo dye, Eliza believes it's the key to their salvation. But everyone tells her it's impossible, and no one will share the secret to making it. Thwarted at nearly every turn, even by her own family, Eliza finds that her only allies are an aging horticulturalist, an older and married gentleman lawyer, and a slave with whom she strikes a dangerous deal: teach her the intricate thousand-year-old secret process of making indigo dye and in return -- against the laws of the day -- she will teach the slaves to read.

So begins an incredible story of love, dangerous and hidden friendships, ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice.

Based on historical documents, including Eliza's letters, this is a historical fiction account of how a teenage girl produced indigo dye, which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina, an export that laid the foundation for the incredible wealth of several Southern families who still live on today. Although largely overlooked by historians, the accomplishments of Eliza Lucas influenced the course of US history. When she passed away in 1793, President George Washington served as a pallbearer at her funeral.

This book is set between 1739 and 1744, with romance, intrigue, forbidden friendships, and political and financial threats weaving together to form the story of a remarkable young woman whose actions were before their time: the story of the indigo girl.]]> 329 Natasha Boyd 1455137111 Rachel 5 4.13 2017 The Indigo Girl
author: Natasha Boyd
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/09
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939]]> 692473
Giving considerable emphasis to a wealth of new archival findings, Saul Friedlander restores the voices of Jews who, after the 1933 Nazi accession to power, were engulfed in an increasingly horrifying reality. We hear from the persecutors themselves: the leaders of the Nazi party, the members of the Protestant and Catholic hierarchies, the university elites, and the heads of the business community. Most telling of all, perhaps, are the testimonies of ordinary German citizens, who in the main acquiesced to increasing waves of dismissals, segregation, humiliation, impoverishment, expulsion, and violence.]]> 439 Saul Friedländer 0060928786 Rachel 0 to-read 4.14 Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939
author: Saul Friedländer
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Waldorf Homeschool Handbook]]> 23676727 your Waldorf-inspired homeschool.]]> 106 Donna Ashton 1936426145 Rachel 3
]]> 3.43 2014 The Waldorf Homeschool Handbook
author: Donna Ashton
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/03
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves:
review:
Very much a beginner hand book. Answered some of my questions and has given me a starting off point. I think one of the best parts of the book is the list of resources in the back. Very handy and nice to have.


]]> Tough Luck 211003970 In this homage to True Grit, a young woman makes a perilous journey west in 1863 in search of her gold-mining father.

After their mother dies, Haidie Richards and her younger brother, Boots, are put to work in an orphanage. Their father left four years earlier to find a gold mine in Colorado Territory, and since then he’s sent only three letters. Still, Haidie is certain that he is alive, has struck gold, and will soon send for them.

But patience is not one of Haidie’s virtues and soon she and her brother make a break for it. Boots and Haidie, disguised as a boy, embark on a dangerous journey deep into Western territory. Along the way, Haidie learns fast not only how to handle mules, oxen, and greedy men, but also that you are better off in a community. Hers includes a card shark, independent “spinster� sisters, and a very fierce dog. Once she arrives in Colorado and finds out the truth about her father, Haidie will need all her new friends for a get-even plot worthy of The Sting.

Filled with vivid period detail, colorful characters, and the irreverent voice of our scrappy heroine, Tough Luck celebrates both the tenacity of youth and the persistence of the heart in the great American West.]]> 288 Sandra Dallas 1250352304 Rachel 0 to-read 4.04 2025 Tough Luck
author: Sandra Dallas
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where Coyotes Howl 60825575 Now a Denver Post bestseller

"Addictive. Highly recommended!"�Paulette Jiles, New York Times bestselling author of News of the World

Beautifully rendered, Where Coyotes Howl is a vivid and deeply affecting ode to the early twentieth century West, from master storyteller Sandra Dallas.

Except for the way they loved each other, they were just ordinary, everyday folks. Just ordinary.

1916. The two-street town of Wallace is not exactly what Ellen Webster had in mind when she accepted a teaching position in Wyoming, but within a year’s time she’s fallen in love—both with the High Plains and with a handsome cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Life is not easy in the flat, brown corner of the state where winter blizzards are unforgiving and the summer heat relentless. But Ellen and Charlie face it all together, their relationship growing stronger with each shared success, and each deeply felt tragedy.

Ellen finds purpose in her work as a rancher’s wife and in her bonds with other women settled on the prairie. Not all of them are so lucky as to have loving husbands, not all came to Wallace willingly, and not all of them can survive the cruel seasons. But they look out for each other, share their secrets, and help one another in times of need. And the needs are great and constant. The only city to speak of, Cheyenne, is miles away, making it akin to the Wild West in rural Wallace. In the end, it is not the trials Ellen and Charlie face together that make them remarkable, but their love for one another that endures through it all.]]> 320 Sandra Dallas 1250277914 Rachel 4 4.21 2023 Where Coyotes Howl
author: Sandra Dallas
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894]]> 29622890
A spellbinding account of danger, devastation, and courage, Under a Flaming Sky reveals the dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the tragedy and brings into focus the ordinary citizens whose lives it irrevocably marked.]]> 311 Daniel James Brown Rachel 0 4.30 2006 Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894
author: Daniel James Brown
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2022/05/07
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves:
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]]> Lone Women 61341851
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women� taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.]]> 282 Victor LaValle Rachel 1 3.87 2023 Lone Women
author: Victor LaValle
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves:
review:
Don't love the foul language. Not necessary.
]]> Winter Counts 50387703 An addictive and groundbreaking debut thriller set on a Native American reservation

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.

They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

Winter Countsis a tour-de-force of crime fiction, a bracingly honest look at a long-ignored part of American life, and a twisting, turning story that’s as deeply rendered as it is thrilling.

]]> 331 David Heska Wanbli Weiden 0062968963 Rachel 1 4.00 2020 Winter Counts
author: David Heska Wanbli Weiden
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/18
shelves:
review:
Stopped reading after the first page. The amount of foul language was ridiculous.
]]> <![CDATA[The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind]]> 11735875
Lyrically told and gloriously illustrated, this story will inspire many as it shows how—even in the worst of times—a great idea and a lot of hard work can still rock the world.]]> 32 William Kamkwamba 0803735111 Rachel 5 4.23 2009 The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
author: William Kamkwamba
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/09
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves:
review:
Absolutely amazing what one person can do and accomplish with next to nothing except determination and a brilliant mind set on figuring things out and making the world a better place.
]]> Picnic in the Ruins 55303672 A madcap caper across the RV-strewn vacation lands of southern Utah meets a meditation on mythology, authenticity, the ethics of preservation, and one nagging question: "who owns the past?"

Anthropologist Sophia Shepard is researching the impact of tourism on cultural sites in a remote national monument on the Utah-Arizona border when she unexpectedly crosses paths with two small-time criminals. The Ashdown brothers were hired to steal maps from a "collector" of Native American artifacts, but instead of delivering as promised, the brothers are out to strike it rich.

But their ineptitude has alerted the local sheriff to their presence--and forced their employer, a former lobbyist seeking lucrative monument land that may soon be open to energy exploration, to send a fixer to clean up their mess before it upsets her machinations. Sheriff Dalton, following the Ashdowns' trail, soon discovers he's not dealing with a simple burglary--and any hope the sheriff had for peace and quiet is long gone.]]> 336 Todd Robert Petersen 1640093222 Rachel 0 3.52 2021 Picnic in the Ruins
author: Todd Robert Petersen
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Take My Hand 58612817 Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.]]> 368 Dolen Perkins-Valdez 0593337700 Rachel 5 4.40 2022 Take My Hand
author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
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]]> Ireland 6381291
This New York Times bestselling epic is an unforgettable tour de force that marries the intimate, passionate texture of the Irish spirit with a historical scope that is sweeping and resplendent. Storyteller extraordinaire Frank Delaney takes his readers on a journey through the history of Ireland, stopping along the way to evoke the dramatic events and personalities so critical to shaping the Irish experience.

In the winter of 1951, a storyteller, the last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, arrives at the home of nine-year-old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. For three wonderful evenings, the old gentleman enthralls his assembled local audience with narratives of foolish kings, fabled saints, and Ireland's enduring accomplishments before moving on. But these nights change young Ronan forever, setting him on a years-long pursuit of the elusive, itinerant storyteller and the glorious tales that are no less than the saga of his tenacious and extraordinary isle.]]> 578 Frank Delaney 0061829773 Rachel 0 4.22 2004 Ireland
author: Frank Delaney
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
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]]> A Glass of Blessings 18630518 256 Barbara Pym Rachel 0 3.88 1958 A Glass of Blessings
author: Barbara Pym
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:
Not sure what the point of this book was...
]]> The Vintage Village Bake Off 195723180 Now in his seventies, Robert Parkin is stunned to find himself the unlikely sex symbol of the village gardening club.

Living in happy solitude with his cat Isaac Mewton in the Devon village of Millbrook, entertained by his mischievous chickens and goats, Robert has never figured out the rules of romance. But as the local ladies vie for his company, it soon becomes clear that Robert’s Victoria Sponge cake is the lure, and as his baking prowess grows, so does his confidence.

Cheesecakes, meringues, puddings, Robert can do it all, but his real masterpieces are his scones � ginger, rosemary, coconut, fruit, his recipes are inspired and soon come to the attention of the local media. Which county does the best cream tea � Devon or Cornwall? It’s time for an age-old debate to be settled with a competition.

Robert’s sisters Bunty and Hattie are both at crossroads in their lives, so news of their brother’s baking competition is the perfect excuse to bring them to Millbrook. And as the siblings relish each other’s company, and Robert relishes being at the heart of his community, a summer of scones may just light the way to long-lasting happiness for them all.

Enjoy Judy Leigh’s wonderful world of family, friendship and feasting in this perfect feel-good story for all fans of Maddie Please, Dawn French and Caroline James.

Readers love Judy

‘I have been a fan of Judy's work for quite a while now. I love the way in which she writes such fun, feel good, heart-warming and uplifting stories.�

‘Judy Leigh is a refreshing writer that writes about older characters� and I have to say that I do not hesitate to pick up a book when Judy has written it. They are always such delightful reads that teach us that life doesn't have to become boring when you get old� A true pleasure to read.�

‘Judy Leigh’s writing is special. She understands people and relationships; she writes of strong, authentic, inspirational women. She realises that becoming older brings health concerns but it’s not all doom and gloom, the women in her books shine! They don’t have perfect lives, but they are survivors, they keep going and achieve new things.�

‘What an absolutely heart-warming story about lifelong friendships set in a wonderful community in a delightful village. The central characters are strong but gentle who support each other through life's ups and downs as well as supporting others in need. This was such a great story that I would save and read again.�

�The Golden Oldies� Book Club is an entertaining read, written with warmth, humour and a message not to let chances slip by. Themes of friendship, community and navigating life and its opportunities run throughout.�

‘A lovely warm read about family and closeness. This author never disappoints, always a joy to find one of her books which I haven’t read.�

‘Such a good read. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their lives as we are gradually introduced. It's refreshing to have a cast of older characters in the lead - reminds everyone that life isn't over when you reach middle age and beyond.�

‘A captivating cosy read written with warmth and humour—friendship, emotion, love, joy, and laughter are abundant throughout the pages of this wonderful story.]]> 338 Judy Leigh 1785132172 Rachel 0 Cute book/story. 4.29 The Vintage Village Bake Off
author: Judy Leigh
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
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Cute book/story.
]]> The Host (The Host #1) 2415887
Wanderer, the invading 'soul' who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, The Host is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.]]> 617 Stephenie Meyer Rachel 2 3.90 2008 The Host (The Host #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Rachel 1 Language and TMI sexually. 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves:
review:
Language and TMI sexually.
]]> The Frozen River 56699106
Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546882 Rachel 0 4.52 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Merchant and the Rogue (The Dread Penny Society, #3)]]> 54655851 London, 1865

Vera Sorokina loves reading the Penny Dreadfuls and immersing herself in tales of adventure, mystery, and romance. Her own days are filled with the often mundane work of running the book and print shop she owns with her father. The shop offers her freedom and an income, and while she is grateful for the stability it brings to her life, she often feels lonely.

Brogan Donnelly was born and raised in Ireland, but has lived in London for several years, where he’s built a career as a penny dreadful writer. He has dedicated himself to the plight of the poor with the help of his sister. But with no one to share his life with, he fears London will never truly feel like home.

Brogan and Vera’s paths cross, and the attraction is both immediate and ill-advised. Vera knows from past experience that writers are never to be trusted, and Brogan has reason to suspect not everything at Vera’s print shop is aboveboard. When a growing criminal enterprise begins targeting their area of London, Brogan and Vera must work together to protect the community they’ve both grown to love. But that means they’ll need to learn to trust each other with dangerous secrets that have followed both of them from their home countries.]]> 368 Sarah M. Eden 1629728519 Rachel 0 3.97 2021 The Merchant and the Rogue (The Dread Penny Society, #3)
author: Sarah M. Eden
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gentleman and the Thief (The Dread Penny Society, #2)]]> 51253509 A gentleman scribes penny dreadful novels by night and falls in love with a woman who is a music teacher by day—and a thief at night.

LONDON 1865

From the moment Hollis Darby meets Ana Newport, he’s smitten. Even though he’s from a wealthy, established family and she isn’t, he wishes he could have a life with her by his side. But Hollis has a secret: the deep coffers that have kept his family afloat for generations are bare, so he supports himself by writing penny dreadfuls under a pseudonym. If not for the income from his novels, he would be broke.

Ana Newport also has a secret. Though she once had a place in society thanks to her father’s successful business, bankruptcy and scandal reduced his fortune to nothing more than a crumbling town house. So Ana teaches music during the day, and at night she assumes the identity of the “Phantom Fox.� She breaks into the homes of the wealthy to reclaim trinkets and treasures she feels were unjustly stolen from her family when they were struggling.

When Hollis’s brother needs to hire a music tutor for his daughter, Hollis recommends Ana, giving him a chance to spend time with her. Ana needs the income and is eager for the opportunity to get to know the enigmatic gentleman. What neither of them expects is how difficult it will be to keep their respective secrets from each other.

When a spree of robberies rocks the city, Ana and Hollis join forces to solve the crimes, discovering that working together deepens the affection between them. After all, who better to save the day than a gentleman and a thief?

]]> 368 Sarah M. Eden 1629727903 Rachel 0 3.90 2020 The Gentleman and the Thief (The Dread Penny Society, #2)
author: Sarah M. Eden
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/26
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]]> The Second Mrs. Astor 56574778 Perfect for fans of Jennifer Chiaverini and Marie Benedict, this riveting novel takes you inside the scandalous courtship and catastrophic honeymoon aboard the Titanic of the most famous couple of their time—John Jacob Astor and Madeleine Force. Told in rich detail, this novel of sweeping historical fiction will stay with readers long after turning the last page.

Madeleine Talmage Force is just seventeen when she attracts the attention of John Jacob “Jack� Astor. Madeleine is beautiful, intelligent, and solidly upper-class, but the Astors are in a league apart. Jack’s mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York’s most formidable socialite. Jack is dashing and industrious—a hero of the Spanish-American war, an inventor, and a canny businessman. Despite their twenty-nine-year age difference, and the scandal of Jack’s recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love—and becomes the press’s favorite target.

On their extended honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time—and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner. When the ship hits an iceberg close to midnight on April 14th, there is no immediate panic. The swift, state-of-the-art RMS Titanic seems unsinkable. As Jack helps Madeleine into a lifeboat, he assures her that he’ll see her soon in New York�

Four months later, at the Astors� Fifth Avenue mansion, a widowed Madeleine gives birth to their son. In the wake of the disaster, the press has elevated her to the status of virtuous, tragic heroine. But Madeleine’s most important decision still lies ahead: whether to accept the role assigned to her, or carve out her own remarkable path…]]> 317 Shana Abe 1496732057 Rachel 4 4.17 2021 The Second Mrs. Astor
author: Shana Abe
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/15
date added: 2024/05/15
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]]> One Italian Summer 58473768 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this “magical trip worth taking� (Associated Press), the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years returns with a powerful novel about the transformational love between mothers and daughters set on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast.When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life. And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue. “Rebecca Serle is known for her powerful stories that tug at the heartstrings—and her latest is just as unforgettable� (Woman’s World) as it effortlessly shows us how to move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.]]> 268 Rebecca Serle 1982166819 Rachel 1 Language... 3.81 2022 One Italian Summer
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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Language...
]]> Bridge of Clay 59039303
At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?

Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak.]]> 525 Markus Zusak Rachel 1 4.08 2018 Bridge of Clay
author: Markus Zusak
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
shelves:
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Didn't even day through the first chapter. Too much language...
]]> <![CDATA[When the Night Comes (The Dollhouse Slayer Series #1)]]> 63922313
After five long years, Jackson Hadley has begrudgingly returned home. As a highly regarded surgeon and alienist, he spends his time traveling through the varying cities of Elione with a colleague to assist in capturing deviants and murderers. Yet now, the Queen has requested his immediate presence in the capital, and he can no longer ignore the city that shaped his disdain for the shallow human mind. He'd rather uncover the secrets of the dead than converse with the living, a predilection to be a lone wolf in a society that bred for attention. The last thing he wants is to disrupt the lives of those he left behind. Hesitant of the backlash he may face, he intends to remain inconspicuous during his visit. However, he isn't given much of a chance when the cut-up body of a prostitute is found displayed in the heart of the city, devoid of blood, seven hours from the last time she was seen alive. Perplexed by the time frame in which a crime like this could occur, Jackson leans on his brothers, Owen and Elijah, to help uncover the truth.

Jade Calvert was born in a gilded cage. Far from the derelict streets of Trinity Row, where the impoverished fight for their lives, most turn to crime and streetwalking to survive. A true living nightmare, yet so was being fed by a silver spoon. With the sudden death of her mother and years of living under her father's violent heel, Jade yearns for freedom. Out of reach from the rules of society to where she can finally breathe. Her resolve is easy when she is the subject of an arranged marriage to a man without regard for anyone below his station, although life isn't so simple. Her world is turned upside down in a chance encounter with Jackson, and he sparks something hidden deep within her, threatening to expose her family and the fate of humanity altogether.

As the bodies pile up, Jackson and his brothers are hindered from doing their jobs and are left questioning the motives of man. Yet the deeper they dig, it's clear that some things should remain hidden for good. Jade and her siblings struggle with what resides deep within, but even as they fight to survive, one thing remains: they have the power to unleash it all. Proving there is more truth to any myth than one would dare to believe.]]> 635 Mallory Robertson Rachel 0 4.33 When the Night Comes (The Dollhouse Slayer Series #1)
author: Mallory Robertson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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]]> The Surgeon's Daughter 58810873 New from the USA Today bestselling author of The Girl in His Shadow!

Women's work is a matter of life and death.

Nora Beady, the only female student at a prestigious medical school in Bologna, is a rarity. In the 19th century women are expected to remain at home and raise children, so her unconventional, indelicate ambitions to become a licensed surgeon offend the men around her. Under constant scrutiny, Nora's successes are taken for granted; her mistakes used as proof that women aren't suited to the field.

Everything changes when she allies herself with Magdalena Morenco, the sole female doctor on-staff. Together the two women develop new techniques to improve a groundbreaking surgery: the Cesarean section. It's a highly dangerous procedure and the research is grueling, but even worse is the vitriolic response from men. Most don't trust the findings of women, and many can choose to deny their wives medical care.

Already facing resistance on all sides, Nora is shaken when she meets a patient who will die without the surgery. If the procedure is successful, her work could change the world. But a failure could cost everything: precious lives, Nora's career, and the role women will be allowed to play in medicine.]]> 384 Audrey Blake 172822876X Rachel 4 4.45 2022 The Surgeon's Daughter
author: Audrey Blake
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/06
date added: 2024/04/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life]]> 15954244
As humans, we are, like the poet John Keats, "straining at particles of light in the midst of a great darkness." And yet, the authors describe a version of life's meaning that is reasonable—and radically resonant. It tells of a God whose heart beats in sympathy with ours, who set His heart upon us before the world was formed, who fashioned the earth as a place of human ascent, not exile, and who has the desire and the capacity to bring the entire human family home again.]]> 160 Terryl L. Givens 1609071883 Rachel 4 4.31 2012 The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life
author: Terryl L. Givens
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Heart of the Matter: What 100 Years of Living Have Taught Me]]> 199912475 240 Russell M. Nelson 1639932569 Rachel 5 4.85 Heart of the Matter: What 100 Years of Living Have Taught Me
author: Russell M. Nelson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.85
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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]]> All the Broken Places 61168459 The sequel to the phenomenal bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, this is John Boyne's latest novel for adults.

1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart, a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, shame, and fear at their heels, not knowing how hard it is to escape your past.

Nearly eighty years later, Gretel Fernsby lives a life that is a far cry from her traumatic childhood. When a couple moves into the flat below her in her London mansion block, it should be nothing more than a momentary inconvenience. However, the appearance of their nine-year-old son Henry brings back memories she would rather forget.

Faced with a choice between her own safety and his, Gretel is taken back to a similar crossroads she encountered long ago. Back then, her complicity dishonoured her life, but to interfere now could risk revealing the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting.]]> 400 John Boyne 0593653076 Rachel 0 4.61 2022 All the Broken Places
author: John Boyne
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times]]> 55206253 "Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself. . . . This is truly a beautiful book." --Elizabeth Gilbert

An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.

Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.

A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.]]> 255 Katherine May Rachel 0 4.02 2020 Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
author: Katherine May
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe, #1)]]> 36238876
Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.]]> 432 Mary Robinette Kowal 146686124X Rachel 1 4.16 2018 The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe, #1)
author: Mary Robinette Kowal
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
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Stopped reading. Language. Repeated F bomb.
]]> Lady Tan's Circle of Women 62969999
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,� but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.]]> 343 Lisa See 1982117109 Rachel 0 4.49 2023 Lady Tan's Circle of Women
author: Lisa See
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
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]]> The Book of Lost Names 48891324 Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the international bestselling author of the “epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale� (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker’s Wife.

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.]]> 396 Kristin Harmel 1982131918 Rachel 3 4.58 2020 The Book of Lost Names
author: Kristin Harmel
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/18
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves:
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I liked the premise of the story, but felt that the writing was not that great.
]]> The Women 126918788 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 472 Kristin Hannah Rachel 1 4.71 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2024/03/12
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Stopped reading. I have read several of Kristen Hannah's books and was looking forward to this one. I would have loved to continue reading except for the language. I realize that the author is portraying the language that would have been spoken in these circumstances, but I have read many a brilliant book that didn't resort to foul language and were able to get their point across just fine.
]]> This Tender Land 26473300 Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing, a magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, from the New York Times bestselling author of Ordinary Grace.

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.

Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.]]> 465 William Kent Krueger Rachel 0 4.51 2019 This Tender Land
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/03/08
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope]]> 40169197
The author comes to understand the fatal flaws in her profession and in her own past actions as a physician while achieving, through unflinching presence, a crystalline vision of a new and better possibility for us all.]]> 265 Rana Awdish Rachel 0 4.41 2017 In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope
author: Rana Awdish
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Expanding the Borders of Zion: A Latter-Day Saint Perspective on LGBTQ Inclusion]]> 75720978
Expanding the Borders of Zion bridges the gap between religion and the LGBTQ community in a way that is both bold and inviting. It will undoubtedly inspire you to love deeper, grow closer to Christ, and expand your heart to more fully embrace all of God’s children.]]> 205 Charlie Bird Rachel 5 4.76 Expanding the Borders of Zion: A Latter-Day Saint Perspective on LGBTQ Inclusion
author: Charlie Bird
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.76
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/14
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves:
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]]> Finding Me 58687126
This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.]]> 304 Viola Davis 0063037327 Rachel 0 to-read 4.54 2022 Finding Me
author: Viola Davis
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Source 18881574 The Source is a richly written saga that encompasses the history of Western civilization and the great religious and cultural ideas that have shaped our world.

Praise for The Source

“Fascinating . . . stunning . . . [a] wonderful rampage through history . . . Biblical history, as seen through the eyes of a professor who is puzzled, appalled, delighted, enriched and impoverished by the spectacle of a land where all men are archeologists.��The New York Times

“A sweeping [novel] filled with excitement—pagan ritual, the clash of armies, ancient and modern: the evolving drama of man’s faith.��The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Magnificent . . . a superlative piece of writing both in scope and technique . . . one of the great books of this generation.��San Francisco Call Bulletin


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 1427 James A. Michener 0812986245 Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.36 1965 The Source
author: James A. Michener
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Only the Beautiful 60873080 400 Susan Meissner 0593332857 Rachel 0 4.58 2023 Only the Beautiful
author: Susan Meissner
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class]]> 176444107 The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, The Other Wes Moore, and Someone Has Led This Child to Believe, Rob Henderson vividly recounts growing up in foster care, enlisting in the US Air Force, attending elite universities, and pioneering the concept of “luxury beliefs”—ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class while inflicting costs on the less fortunate.

Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. When he was adopted into a loving family, he hoped that life would finally be stable and safe. Divorce, tragedy, poverty, and violence marked his adolescent and teen years, propelling Henderson to join the military upon completing high school.

An unflinching portrait of shattered families, desperation, and determination, Troubled recounts Henderson’s expectation-defying young life and juxtaposes his story with those of his friends who wound up incarcerated or killed. He retreads the steps and missteps he took to escape the drama and disorder of his youth. As he navigates the peaks and valleys of social class, Henderson finds that he remains on the outside looking in. His greatest achievements—a military career, an undergraduate education from Yale, a PhD from Cambridge—feel like hollow measures of success. He argues that stability at home is more important than external accomplishments, and he illustrates the ways the most privileged among us benefit from a set of social standards that actively harm the most vulnerable.]]> 336 Rob Henderson 1982168536 Rachel 0 to-read 4.10 2024 Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
author: Rob Henderson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Davita's Harp 36967291

From the Paperback edition.]]> 385 Chaim Potok Rachel 0 4.47 1985 Davita's Harp
author: Chaim Potok
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Tending Roses (Tending Roses #1)]]> 514301
When Kate Bowman temporarily movesto her grandmother’s Missouri farmwith her husband and baby son, she learns that the lessons that most enrich our lives often come unexpectedly. The family has given Kate the job of convincing Grandma Rose, who’s become increasingly stubborn and forgetful, to move off her beloved land and into a nursing home. But Kate knows such a change would break her grandmother’s heart.

Just when Kate despairs of finding answers, she discovers her grandma’s journal. A beautiful handmade notebook, it is full of stories that celebrate the importance of family, friendship, and faith. Stories that make Kate see her life—and her grandmother—in a completely new way...]]> 336 Lisa Wingate 0451205790 Rachel 4
A book that reminds us that the best times in our lives are while the roses are growing wild.....]]> 3.94 2001 Tending Roses (Tending Roses #1)
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2009/01/11
date added: 2024/01/27
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I really liked this book a lot. I liked the characters and the advice of the grandmother. The advice the grandmother gave I really took to heart. The relationships and struggles in this book between family members, the learning and growth by all, including the grandmother, are well written.

A book that reminds us that the best times in our lives are while the roses are growing wild.....
]]> From Grace to Charity 78818258 144 Emily Belle Freeman 163993121X Rachel 5 4.60 From Grace to Charity
author: Emily Belle Freeman
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon]]> 35852435 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

The author of the New York Times bestseller You Are the Placebo, as well as Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and Evolve Your Brain, draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives.

Becoming Supernatural marries the some of the most profound scientific information with ancient wisdom to show how people like you and me can experience a more mystical life.

Readers will learn that we are, quite literally supernatural by nature if given the proper knowledge and instruction, and when we learn how to apply that information through various meditations, we should experience a greater expression of our creative abilities; that we have the capacity to tune in to frequencies beyond our material world and receive more orderly coherent streams of consciousness and energy; that we can intentionally change our brain chemistry to initiate profoundly mystical transcendental experiences; and how, if we do this enough times, we can develop the skill of creating a more efficient, balanced, healthy body, a more unlimited mind, and greater access to the realms of spiritual truth. Topics include:

� Demystifying the body’s 7 energy centers and how you can balance them to heal
� How to free yourself from the past by reconditioning your body to a new mind
� How you can create reality in the generous present moment by changing your energy
� The difference between third-dimension creation and fifth-dimension creation
� The secret science of the pineal gland and its role in accessing mystical realms of reality
� The distinction between Space-Time vs. Time-Space realities

And much more...]]> 375 Joe Dispenza 1401953107 Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.24 2017 Becoming Supernatural: How Common People are Doing the Uncommon
author: Joe Dispenza
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 62226126
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?]]> 421 Richard Osman 0241512441 Rachel 5 4.44 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)
author: Richard Osman
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (The Herdmans, #1)]]> 239810 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever follows the outrageous shenanigans of the Herdman siblings, or “the worst kids in the history of the world.� The siblings take over the annual Christmas pageant in a hilarious yet heartwarming tale involving the Three Wise Men, a ham, scared shepherds, and six rowdy kids.

Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are an awful bunch. They set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s toolshed, blackmailed Wanda Pierce to get her charm bracelet, and smacked Alice Wendelken across the head. And that’s just the start! When the Herdmans show up at church for the free snacks and suddenly take over the Christmas pageant, the other kids are shocked. It’s obvious that they’re up to no good. But Christmas magic is all around and the Herdmans, who have never heard the Christmas story before, start to reimagine it in their own way.

This year’s pageant is definitely like no other, but maybe that’s exactly what makes it so special.]]> 128 Barbara Robinson 0064402754 Rachel 5 4.24 1972 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (The Herdmans, #1)
author: Barbara Robinson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1972
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/26
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]]> The Night Before Christmas 196970 32 Clement Clarke Moore 0399231900 Rachel 0 4.39 1823 The Night Before Christmas
author: Clement Clarke Moore
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1823
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/26
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]]> The Marriage Portrait 60394519
Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.]]> 353 Maggie O'Farrell Rachel 0 4.09 2022 The Marriage Portrait
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/26
date added: 2023/12/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Physician (Cole Family Trilogy, #1)]]> 4692 714 Noah Gordon 0751503894 Rachel 0 to-read 4.39 1986 The Physician (Cole Family Trilogy, #1)
author: Noah Gordon
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Moloka'i (Moloka'i, #1) 3273
Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story."]]> 405 Alan Brennert 0312304358 Rachel 0 to-read 4.19 2003 Moloka'i (Moloka'i, #1)
author: Alan Brennert
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us]]> 59575939 A grand tour through the hidden realms of animal senses that will transform the way you perceive the world --from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes.

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension--the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.

We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth's magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and humans that wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile's scaly face is as sensitive as a lover's fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries which lie unsolved.

In An Immense World, author and acclaimed science journalist Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. Because in order to understand our world we don't need to travel to other places; we need to see through other eyes.]]> 464 Ed Yong Rachel 0 to-read 4.46 2022 An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
author: Ed Yong
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1]]> 52085140
The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s.

Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be, which comprise a series of novella-length volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.]]> 125 Beth Brower 0998063614 Rachel 0 to-read 4.24 2019 The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1
author: Beth Brower
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)]]> 40333989 Get ready for Samantha Shannon's new novel, A Day of Fallen Night, coming in February 2023!The New York Times bestselling "epic feminist fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones" (Bustle).NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AMAZON (Top 100 Editors Picks and Science Fiction and Fantasy) * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY * BOOKPAGE * AUTOSTRADDLEA world divided.A queendom without an heir.An ancient enemy awakens.The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.]]> 849 Samantha Shannon 163557028X Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.22 2019 The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Covenant of Water 63429926 From the New York Times–bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial new epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret.

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone. Published in 2009, Cutting for Stone became a literary phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life. All of Verghese’s great gifts are on display in this new there are astonishing scenes of medical ingenuity, fantastic moments of humor, a surprising and deeply moving story, and characters imbued with the essence of life.

A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 775 Abraham Verghese Rachel 0 4.58 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/04
date added: 2023/12/04
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]]> Year of Wonders 4965
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.

As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]> 304 Geraldine Brooks 0142001430 Rachel 4
There is some language and toward the end, a sex scene that we could do without. Those things always frustrate me. I'd have given all 5 stars if not for that...

The rest of the writing is superb though and leaves you with much to think about, ponder, and be grateful for living in the day and age that we do. ]]> 4.00 2001 Year of Wonders
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2014/05/20
date added: 2023/11/11
shelves:
review:
To live through a plague.... not having and knowing what we have now at our disposal. I can't imagine! But Geraldine Brooks does imagine and she takes you through it and the emotions you feel are as if you are there.

There is some language and toward the end, a sex scene that we could do without. Those things always frustrate me. I'd have given all 5 stars if not for that...

The rest of the writing is superb though and leaves you with much to think about, ponder, and be grateful for living in the day and age that we do.
]]> The Guns of August 40779082
In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize–winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.]]> 658 Barbara W. Tuchman Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.17 1962 The Guns of August
author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Immortals: A WWII Story of Four Heroic Chaplains, the Sinking of the SS Dorchester, and an Awe-Inspiring Rescue: The World War II Story of Five Fearless ... the Dorchester, and an Awe-Inspiring Rescue]]> 58012303 SS Dorchester with more than 900 men on board. Alexander Goode, a Jewish rabbi; John Washington, a Catholic priest; George Fox, a Methodist minister; and Clark Poling, a Baptist minister, all offered comfort, reassurances, and prayers along with a warning from the captain that a German submarine was hunting their convoy.

Thoroughly researched and told in an engrossing nonfiction narrative, this true story alternates between accounts told from the perspective of the Nazi U-boat captain and his crew (as found in their journals and later interviews) and survivors from the Dorchester who credit the four chaplains with saving their lives after their ship was torpedoed.

The celebrated story of the men who became known as the Immortal Chaplains is now joined for the first time in print by the largely untold story of another hero: Charles Walter David Jr. A young Black petty officer aboard a coast guard cutter traveling with the Dorchester, Charles bravely dived into the glacial water over and over again, even with hypothermia setting in, to try to rescue those the chaplains had inspired to never give up.

Page-turning and inspiring, The Immortals explores the power of both faith and sacrifice and powerfully narrates the lives of five heroic men who believed in something greater than themselves, giving their all for people of vastly different beliefs and backgrounds.]]> 309 Steven T. Collis 1629739960 Rachel 0 4.47 2021 The Immortals: A WWII Story of Four Heroic Chaplains, the Sinking of the SS Dorchester, and an Awe-Inspiring Rescue: The World War II Story of Five Fearless ... the Dorchester, and an Awe-Inspiring Rescue
author: Steven T. Collis
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/26
date added: 2023/10/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stop Walking on Eggshells for Parents: How to Help Your Child (of Any Age) with Borderline Personality Disorder without Losing Yourself]]> 58011910 "A valuable, practical resource for parents and caregivers of children, from age five through adulthood, who exhibit signs of, or have been diagnosed with, borderline personality disorder (BPD)."�Booklist

Based on the self-help classic, Stop Walking on Eggshells, this essential guide offers powerful skills and strategies for parenting a child of any age with borderline personality disorder (BPD)—without sacrificing their family or themselves.

If you have a child with BPD, you are all-too-aware of the behavioral and emotional issues that are linked to this disorder—including rages, self-harm, sexual acting out, substance abuse, suicidal behaviors, physical and emotional attacks, and more. Traditional parenting strategies that work on other kids just don’t work with a borderline child. But you shouldn’t lose hope. The good news is that there are parenting strategies that do work.

With this comprehensive resource, you will learn all about borderline personality disorder, how it shows up in children,adolescents,and your adult children,how to obtain proper treatment, and how to manage your child’s condition at home. You’ll find proven-effective strategies to help you communicate and improve your relationship with your childof any age, and, as a result, improve your own life as a parent and an individual. You’ll also find real stories and advice from parents who have also experienced raising a child with BPD.

Most importantly, you’ll learn how to maintain boundaries and validate your child while also meeting your own needs. Whether your child is 5 or 25, this book offers tools to help you and your family thrive.]]> 369 Randi Kreger 1684038596 Rachel 0 4.43 2022 Stop Walking on Eggshells for Parents: How to Help Your Child (of Any Age) with Borderline Personality Disorder without Losing Yourself
author: Randi Kreger
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/26
shelves:
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]]> The Marriage Portrait 60353768 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de� Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.

Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.]]> 355 Maggie O'Farrell Rachel 0 3.97 2022 The Marriage Portrait
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Rachel
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 85148114
As these characters� stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.]]> 400 James McBride 0593422961 Rachel 0 4.25 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/09/18
date added: 2023/09/18
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]]> Flowers for Algernon 54872718 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence-a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes Rachel 4
I had to keep reminding myself that this is a fictional story because I would get so angry and worked up at the mother! Rose! Argh! Even now writing this it makes me angry.

Anyway, an interesting perspective and a very good read. Fiction or non... one of the main ideas remain the same, we are all human beings and should be treated as thus. ]]> 4.27 1966 Flowers for Algernon
author: Daniel Keyes
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at: 2015/08/07
date added: 2023/08/18
shelves:
review:
I had no idea this book was written so long ago. I think my perspective in reading this book is most likely a lot different than most people's. Having a son with special needs, I looked at it from a parent's point of view. A hard read!! I was so mad at the mother and the father! Some may justify that at the time the book was written that institutionalizing a child with special needs was the thing to do! Excepting I grew up with parents who were adamant that their children not be put into homes and raised them themselves. I see them as being even more admirable knowing the time period and what they were up against.

I had to keep reminding myself that this is a fictional story because I would get so angry and worked up at the mother! Rose! Argh! Even now writing this it makes me angry.

Anyway, an interesting perspective and a very good read. Fiction or non... one of the main ideas remain the same, we are all human beings and should be treated as thus.
]]> The Call of the Sea 60698839 "The book gives a great sense of life to the fragmented Wales of the 12th century, and the interesting plot is based on a historical incident. Recommended." -Historical Novel Society

On the eve of her betrothal to a nobleman she’s never met, Rhiannon seeks comfort on the shores of the sea she loves so well. But instead of offering peace to her uneasy heart, the ocean heralds doom with the arrival of dreaded Viking ships. A vicious raid leads to the death of her beloved father and leaves Rhiannon’s life in tatters. Heartbroken, she travels to Ynys Môn, where she takes up residence at the royal court of Owain Gwynedd.

Leif loves voyaging on the open water. As the son of a Viking chief, he’s accustomed to his people’s practice of plundering and looting. But when one of his companions ruthlessly kills an old man in front of the man’s beautiful daughter, Leif is haunted by the memory. Desperate to find forgiveness for the atrocity he allowed to occur, he’s offered a chance at redemption through the kindly teachings of an Irish priest and the unexpected arrival of a royal fugitive. Suddenly thrust into the midst of the Cymry’s political turmoil, Leif is reunited with the dead man’s daughter—Rhiannon. Forced to work side by side to uncover the truth behind the turmoil, they come to discover that love can grow from even the most tragic of beginnings. But with such incompatible backgrounds, surely a future together can never be theirs.]]> 318 Sian Ann Bessey 1524422266 Rachel 0 4.37 2022 The Call of the Sea
author: Sian Ann Bessey
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/17
date added: 2023/08/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America]]> 397483
Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison.

The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.

Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. - John Moe]]> 464 Erik Larson 0609608444 Rachel 0 currently-reading 4.02 2003 The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
author: Erik Larson
name: Rachel
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/05
shelves: currently-reading
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